How to Secure Your Ubuntu Network

In 2016, keeping your Ubuntu network secure is more important than ever. Despite what some people might think, there’s much more to this than merely putting up a router to protect a network. You must also configure each of your PCs properly to ensure you’re operating within a secure Ubuntu network.
Placing blind trust in any firewall appliance, user “best practices,” or “security through obscurity” is just asking for trouble. All it takes is a flash drive, phishing scheme or even a failure to successfully apply a patch and you could be putting your Ubuntu network in danger.
Because there is no silver bullet to keep your network safe, I recommend using all the tools at our disposal. In addition to that, it’s also important to verify that everything is operating correctly on a schedule. For myself personally, I usually setup an “audit” day once a month to really drill down on everything. This means checking logs, verifying applied patches and looking for anything out of the ordinary.
Many of you might believe that security for your network starts at your router. I disagree and instead recommend starting your security overhaul on each individual PC on your network. Ubuntu (and other distros), Windows and Mac PCs need to all be locked down as much as possible. In an era of laptops, it’s just too easy to take a poorly locked down computer over to a secondary network and expose said laptop to who knows what type of network security.